it's. the latest news and a look back at the week's top stories here at r.t. the olympic torch is lit in the game's ancient birthplace in greece and begins the longest journey in the history of the winter olympics to stop in twenty fourteen. a rare note of a chord and hope at the u.n. general assembly that's up to the security council passed a unanimous resolution on syria over its chemical weapons and a potentially historic glimmer of light in u.s. iranian relations. a russian court orders all the greenpeace activists arrested trying to scale an arctic boil platform to remain in custody while the group is under investigation. and in the british city of manchester tens of thousands take

to the streets angered over cuts to health care spending while the military and surveillance budgets continue to grow. you're watching are to live from our moscow studios i'm lindsey france thanks for joining me. in greece at a grand age old ceremony the olympic flame for the twenty fourteen winter games has been lit and set off for the epic journey to the host city of sochi the torch will travel over fifty thousand kilometers across seas and mountains and will even go into space under former watch the event in a limpia and to bad mouth say reports from soft here in russia. lympics flame for sorcery twenty fourteen has been lit will probably be able to see it just behind my left shoulder there and it also we will see here at olympia the birthplace of the

games the longest torch relay in the olympic history just a few moments ago the lighting of the flame ceremony took place it was basically a step back in time winding back the clock perhaps two and a half thousand years is so not trist stressed as a high priest test light the flame using the powers of the sun and a parabolic mirror which is basically what happened in seven hundred b.c. that flame is them brought here to the ancient stadium which is where i am standing and it is now being used or just was used to light the torch the very first torch bearer he runs off to my right by tradition he's always a great god on this occasion he was an eighteen year old ski called yanis antonio who hopes to compete for his country in sochi next year and he will hand this torch the first russian torch bearer alexander ovechkin the ice hockey star he himself has only been released by his club the washington capitals for forty eight hours to

carry out this honor he flies back to the states this evening but he says that this event today was one of the highlights of his career while the torch will go on a tour of greece for the next seven days and that will end in athens next weekend before it flies to moscow but it all has started here as we've been on the air in the limpia the birthplace of the olympics well it's definitely going to be an olympic torch relay that's going to break a many records and here's why it's going to take around one hundred days for all of that torture to go through russia it's going to take sixty five thousand kilometers and fourteen thousand torchbearers to bring it right here to the host city it's going to date through nine at times owns eighty three regions or two thousand nine hundred and and cities. it's women's across russia it also visit the north pole also it will go to the top of the euro highest mountain in the russia's or north

caucuses it will then make a trip outside of eartha to the i.r.s. says away cosmonauts they will take it on a space walk now this is never happened before in the history of the olympics now in terms of traveling the torch around russia it's going to have a conventional ways such as you know the train a plane as well as on foot or through personalities but it's also going to go through unconventional ways or through reindeer sleighs and hot air balloons of course a russia wanted to highlight some of its culture its the history and of course this emerging new younger russia that we're seeing being developed here at the host city in us. and we will of course become one of the spectacular stops along the way for the olympic torch relay over the next few months here on aren t. on air and online at our website r.t. dot com. the olympic torch is on it's a big journey to such. one hundred and twenty three days. through two

thousand nine hundred towns and cities of russia. relayed by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killing. in a record setting trip by land air and sea and others face. olympic torch relay special coverage on our i. well no one expected it just two weeks ago but this year's un general assembly has proven that there is enough space for consensus between world powers and has seen a historic phone call which raised hopes that it deadlock can be broken in iran's nuclear crisis but the show of unity when the u.n. security council unanimously voted on a syrian resolution something that seemed to be elusive for more than two years parties and it's now reports from new york hope for diplomacy progress on two fronts at the united nations a new tone in policy towards iran and

a security council resolution on chemical weapons in syria reopening union we've been hearing increasingly off to the argument that the threat or use of force which is directly precipitated by the un charter might be the most efficient way to solve international problems the united states of america is prepared to use all elements or power including military force to secure. our core interests the rich. but where consensus at the u.n. emerged after years of deadlock over how to deal with the syrian crisis the u.n. security council unanimously passed a resolution to secure and eliminate syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons according to the geneva agreement put forward by russia and the u.s. the mandate outlines a legally binding compliance but no threat of automatic sanctions or military action i think it shows they were turning towards a diplomatic solution least on the issue of chemical weapons but the other issue

that is still remained outstanding is what will happen outside of the issue of chemical weapons will the promise to be pursued by the united states or will they continue to find as they have the opposition an arm the opposition of silicate that happening and try to deepen the conflict over to our side in another way it's a u.s. policy that iran's new president says has no place in the region his debut at the u.n. this week star hassan rowhani reach out but also defend tehran from political attacks iran is an anchor of stability in unstable region the iranian threat is imaginary and is used as an excuse for the misdeeds of others iran poses absolutely no threat to the world or the region rowhani made it clear that iran does not want nuclear weapons and that it wants peace but also to be treated as an equal rainy and u.s. officials praise high level meetings that took place on the sidelines of the general assembly and the country's president spoke over the phone for the first

time in over three decades so what would it take for a would be photo op to become a new u.s. approach towards iran a lot of us have are very tied his hands are tied that there are people and lobby groups in the united states that do not want to see the united states and iran after thirty four years of demonizing the country to have relations the u.s. is in a tough spot. to keep from normal relations in the middle east and now the alienation of the arabs and muslims in general against the earth is mostly due to the commitment of the founder of the us shows its relations with israel obama said to meet with israeli prime minister netanyahu on monday in washington now is the real test will the u.s. be able to move forward with diplomacy in the middle east both with iran and syria the first week at the u.n. general assembly has opened the door to rethink

a failed policy the question is will the obama administration shut it the first chance they get reporting from new york and he sonali r.t. the resolution adopted by the united nations demands that both the government in damascus and the opposition comply with the disarmament earlier we spoke to author and historian gerald horne who said that ensuring the rebels cooperate will be difficult. that's the weakness of this peace process recall that just a few days ago from these so-called rebels little officially with the more extremist faction basically saying that the less extreme instructions to somehow be purged in expelled the extremist fraction of course is spearheaded by the almost for front close to al qaida keep in mind as well that some of the so-called chemical facilities in syria or under the jurisdiction of rebel forces if the rebel forces are not part of this process it's gone clear to me how it could be resolved

that is to say how can chemical weapons be destroyed not the least how can these chemical weapons be found if the rebels are not part of the process. that's still ahead for you this hour the power to electoral success in europe is paved with neurosis kept accent a mint. reflecting a spike in anti anti brussels party is doing well at the ballot box across the continent for luminary results suggest right wing parties appear to have made a strong showing an officer is parliamentary elections will have more on that later this hour. in bahrain fifty shia muslims have been sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison for movement linked to anti-government militants the group was formed back in two thousand and eleven and was the major driving force behind a nationwide program form uprising we spoke to dr nada day who chairs the bahrain rehabilitation anti-violence organization and also spent two months in prison there

she says the whole trial is a well known top level tactic of demonization. actually it's quite old the propaganda the whole process all the demonization of the pro-democracy corners and to pro-democracy groups is a quite an old fashioned thing that the death or it is the bahamian authorities they'd be using for a while and it's not working anymore i mean at this moment they've failed absolutely failed to provide any evidence that these groups are involved in any to terror attacks or any move to take movements two years ago exactly at the same date same judge he convicted doctors almost fifty doctors for sentencing up to fifteen years it's the same thing the repeating one is coming your

way after a short break stay with us. economic down in the final. days. and the rest of life would still be great if we. sympathize with the seat of the uprising but we do not train. we do not smuggle weapons or send but. we do not do any of these things.

welcome back thank you for joining me and lindsey france you're watching our t.v. live from moscow in the u.k. fifty thousand people staged one of the biggest protests manchester's ever seen to coincide with the first day of the annual conservative party conference protesters are furious with cuts to social spending and health services brought in by the coalition government led by conservatives we talked to one of the protesters to ask what precisely got the marchers so fired up. this government is in fact in real trouble of course it's been very much to do with the national health service today that actually that it's facing twenty billion of of cuts by twenty fifteen it's all

but it's also shown that crystallized to so many issues of where the government's unpopular for all the way from mass surveillance to threaten action in syria to legal aid the fact that so many people are willing to speak out and stand up for the n.h.s. and stand up for bret to britain a really put pressure on this government now we've seen how the austerity the austerity agenda is damaging the country and that it's also clear that a new network a new movement is really beginning to forge itself it's also i think what's going to really put pressure on the tories is the fact that people are talking together it's not like the left wing in one corner but if this is a much the a much bigger movement now time to rethink david cameron. head to our web site r c dot com for even more stories just a click away for you now the u.s. federal government could be on the verge of shutting down that's after congress

voted to push back obama's controversial health care reforms by one year something the white house is unlikely to accept i know details on our website plus find out about the new unit in the british army that staffed by the i.t. crowd and is designed to defend the country from the threat of cyber warfare this and more at r.t. dot com. a russian court in more months cares now denied bail to all the greenpeace activists who were arrested after trying to scale a russian oil platform in the arctic altogether thirty people have been remanded in custody for two months as the investigation into the protests continues this comes as the polar region gears up for a significant changes as your piskun off explains. the pictures that stormed international media greenpeace activists trying to climb onto a floating platform in russia's north arrested by coast guards.

shot all thirty activists from eighteen countries were detained and are now awaiting whether they will be officially charged greenpeace claims their actions were peaceful but the authorities say they could have endangered not only the lives of the rig's workers but the environment itself social and she had no it's obvious they are not pirates but they tried to storm the platform and these people violated international law by coming dangerously close to the president's common scheme and an international arctic conference organized by russia or here in syria cuts to the only city in the world located exactly on the arctic circle line where the presidents of russia finland iceland other officials along with around four hundred experts have gathered and the arctic environment is what this forum is all about as average temperatures warm up and the arctic is opening up new opportunities for trade routes and energy projects moscow says only companies with experience working in the tough region and enough funds to do it properly and without harming nature

must be allowed access and cleaning up the heritage of the cold war era is another issue abandoned military bases equipment and piles of barrels with fuel i know a map of the arctic binary assessment program has been involved in that but russia has really been working on its own to try to claim we have a ways to go and they're not alone there are places around the planet or similar things that happened when people didn't recognize it. as something they did had long term negative consequences for the environment the arctic nations seem to be on the same beach looking after the north pole is a responsibility they must carry together so that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated especially when their every move is under such intense scrutiny you've got this going off in the arctic circle. the centrist coalition government appears to have secured a narrow way in austria's parliamentary elections but preliminary results suggest right wing parties have done particularly well scooping up more than

a quarter of the overall vote peter all over reports from vienna for us. what it shows is that the social democrats on the people's party who went into these elections as the coalition government well it looks likely that they'll come out of these elections as the coalition government they've picked up around fifty percent of the vote there over the coming days we should probably hear that they will continue their coalition what is most interesting about these elections is that over one quarter of austrians have voted for parties that want to do away with bailouts for euro zone countries and see in see real changes to the structure of the single currency now to talk a bit more about this and what it means i'm joined by barbara cole who's the director of the austrian economic sense a barber thanks very much for talking to me why have austrians voted in this way and why are they upset with the current eurozone system while they entrust the politicians in brussels any more they don't trust our austrian to the decision

makers what day do there they don't believe they find the right solutions i mean after all it's just. a redistribution on a supranational level it's austrian tax euros that go to other countries and are just washed down the drain now austria is one of the four eurozone economies that essentially underpins bailouts what would this vote over a quarter as they say people voting for parties that want to change things what does this mean for the future of the single currency well i think it does set a couple of politicians thinking and overlook their past solutions that after all it has only prolong the problems this is definitely what the people see and it has not come up to any solutions as a matter of fact that that's grew bigger and bigger and higher so the next generations will suffer and this is what those twenty five percent obviously have in mind so austrians voting in increasing numbers for parties they want changes to the eurozone and also voting for right wing party something that we have seen

spreading across europe as my report shows. the political. it is on the rise in europe and it's drawing some surprising support a lot of people from the working class blue collar workers lower educated people are voting for the extreme right of the radical right because of the policies still put forward like immigration and european integration corruption against a politicized in the such so these are the topics that are now days important for those people voting for the radical right across europe there's a time that's turning right ukip is being talked about is the legitimate third party in britain while alternative for germany just missed out on a place in the bundestag norway's conservative government came to power with tough immigration promises and in sweden and finland there's also been gains here in australia euro skeptic right wing parties are gaining support from people who feel

that the main issues important to them aren't being addressed it can't last and it's all free and we need to slow down immigration i have nothing against foreigners but enough is enough. yeah e.u. is saying where the money should go to like and all kind poor countries as well on which of their own country and the e.u. is to wouldn't be like join dictate everything that actually yes it used to be their own party sport interest spruced and the e.u. second now it's only after you. want and. the freedom party of austria have made significant gains it's critics call it xenophobia its leader begs to differ being out of australia i don't head for in those. even so the policy adopted a different campaign tactic that it had done in previous elections their issue and

message about religious values and a sense of talking about love your neighbors which is a very catholic way of talking about issues but of course the hidden message behind us that this is against islam or against muslims also flying the roof line is a straight canadian billionaire frank strong who condemns the single currency is the road to rack and ruin we need to stop creating dirt every housewife knows that if she spends more money than the old parameters most of europe's recent elections have been nail biters for politicians desperate to keep their jobs amid libyan economies all street is different it's doing relatively fine what's happening here is brussels persistence with bailouts and encroachments on sovereignty is given the right to come didn't sing the road to beat them with peace or all over the. well nationalists in austria are making gains members of the far right golden dawn

party in greece have come under pressure from the authorities they're accused of running a criminal gang as well as resorting to murder violence and extortion. the present outrage directed at golden dawn started after a party member allegedly murdered a prominent anti-fascist more than twenty of the group's officials have been detained by police with a special task force looking for a dozen more the authorities are said to have found guns ammunition and tens of thousands of euros at the home of party leader but as are to reports the popularity of the group is not likely to be significantly affected by these charges. fury on the streets of athens clashes erupted following a protest against the murder of pablo's physis the anti-fascist rapper was stabbed to death last week by an alleged supporter of the far right golden dawn party allegations the group firmly denies. kill a p.c.

as a young man was known to be not have been the first to die at the hands of greek neo nazi groups but he was the first non migrant golden dawn has also been said to be targeting anarchists and communists renewing political tensions between the extreme left right and the greek government they have acquired the fear. races they have collaborated with the nazis maybe. they have have blood on their hands this is why we say go with this government with the golden dome the group is trying to keep a low profile in the wake of the killing and wouldn't speak to us on camera this man however was keen to talk george says he's one of the group's oldest members and he blames journalists for giving golden dawn a bad rep is the only party that helps bench inners poor people and desperate greeks who are suffering the crisis we're not extremists and we aren't against anyone yet georges also wanted to make sure i noticed people in the neighborhood he

claimed this man was an egyptian immigrant who lived on handouts at the expense of greeks like himself as for the nazi symbolism the fascist salutes that the group has been known for all a misunderstanding he says. what's wrong with this there's nothing wrong with a salute just a way of saying hello i did myself it's a greeting that still terrifies this greek resident he believes that golden dawn was to blame for his recent assault but he also points to another factor behind the growing divisions and the violence only a crisis i didn't used to be afraid but agrees has changed everyone is suffering financially and some are looking to blame others immigrants and. target despite the public shows of anger against it golden dawn is greece's third largest party and at least until now its fastest growing political force it gained ground against a backdrop of unrest linked to the economic crisis and a country burdened by debt soaring unemployment and deep cuts to social spending.

it's the. when your life changes totally like ours has in the past few years and when you lose your job and can't provide for your family you grew up with the helping hand you can get and golden dawn has helped as we'll fight to the end spiros a shop owner who's had to shut down one of his stores because of the recession blames the influx of immigrants for straining scarce resources and he says golden dawn keeps order in his neighborhood when the government fails we don't want to use violence but when golden dawn kicks out immigrants who are squatting illegally. doing enforces peace and of course who support them as the government does nothing the financial crisis has done more than simply cripple greece's economy it's changing society too when asked to describe how local say that the writing is on the wall in this neighborhood it literally is in the red it says out with foreigners signed golden dawn in the black fashion. it's evidence of

a growing ideological divide and with the greek economy still in trouble that divide is unlikely to heal anytime soon lucy countered of r.t. athens earlier dr alexander casm e.s.o. a specialist in greek politics spoke to my colleague kevin owen who believes the more the government tries to suppress golden dawn the more it is likely to flora. so far as the position of the m.p.'s for whom arrest warrants have been issued is concerned by the fact that they will be on trial in under arrest they will not lose their status as members of the greek parliament course though seems to be the case if you try and close something and you drive it underground it thrives conversely. that is correct and i am personally against. golden dawn precisely for the reason you outlined in your question it seems that the greek authorities are not entirely clear about what to do so far. not banning golden dawn because they want to avoid

a situation whereby the movement although with the organization rather goes on the ground and becomes a more frightening force in greek politics at the same time however they're arresting its members and they're going for something like a de facto ban without a proper legal bat. so had these as our heart of darkness we look at what lies beneath a surge of bloodshed in africa as students shoppers and churchgoers become the target of militant attacks. plus losing homes and hopefully find out why the residents of the u.k.'s ascension island say the american air force is pushing them out. we'll have more in about fifteen minutes but first the latest from the business world in venture capital with my colleague catapulting .

recently the ministry of internal affairs of russia declared that they're going to address to increase operations in and around the moscow subway system with a major emphasis on illegal immigration there's an odd paradox when people talk about dealing with illegal immigration in terms of what the police should do people want the police to deal with it but any means of trying to actually do anything are generally taboo any form of asking people to see ideas viewed as an invasion of privacy or racial profiling well i don't know how exactly anyone can prove they are or aren't a citizen without id and if you're looking for people who are forward and thus different then how can you go about looking for illegals without looking for people who are different i.e. profiling if you were looking for a criminal of slavic origin in uganda with the police be wrong to stop me due to standing out from the crowd i don't think so that's not racial profiling it is just common sense obviously it is best to fight the causes of illegal immigration rather than asking for id in my.